BTB #173: An Information Dream

Dennie Heye of Shell in the Netherlands, and Stephen Kizza, a librarian with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in Kampala, Uganda, began their information sharing adventure with just two shelves and two computers. Working together, and with the help of Special Libraries Association colleagues around the world, they continue to supply Kizza’s remote library with online resources. In a “Beyond the Book” episode from November 2009, the two email correspondents first heard each other’s voices.

Beyond the Book’s Chris Kenneally moderated a discussion about best practices in global information sharing at SLA 2010, with Dennie Heye, and Guy St. Clair of SMR Knowledge who is also an SLA past president and had ecently returned from a six-month assignment in Nairobi. “Probably the most humbling and the most exciting prospect that I see is the passionate desire of our colleagues in developing countries to match as closely as they can the work that we?re able to do in our knowledge centers, our specialized libraries, information centers,” St.Clair said.

And while Stephen Kizza could not attend this month’s annual SLA conference in New Orleans, his voice was heard in a moving presentation on the needs and challenges he and so many librarians in developing countries face.